Letters: We don't want to take unvetted refugees

A good column by Mark Landsbaum [“Americans not who Obama wants us to be,” Opinion, Jan. 2]. Obama told America seven years ago that he intended to fundamentally transform America, and few listened. America had always tried to be careful about who it lets in the country, but Obama has thrown out that idea.

Obama’s quote, “That’s not who we are,” makes one wonder who is “we”? The man is not deaf. He knows full well that Americans do not want hundreds of thousands of unvetted Syrians waltzing into America. Who is going to do background checks on them? The Syrian State Department? Syria does not know who these people are and doesn’t care.

Europe is full of refugees who have no intention of assimilating into European society and we are beginning to have our own problems here. We have millions of illegals from south of the border who have no intention of assimilating either. Obama and the Democrats now want to flood us with thousands upon thousands who also will not assimilate. The religious beliefs of Muslims do not mix with anything America stands for, and Obama’s administration has no way of knowing how many radicals are among those refugees.

I don’t like everything that Donald Trump stands for, but I do agree with him that we must not allow that many Muslim refugees into America until we have thoroughly vetted them or found a place in the Middle East to put them. The wealthy Muslim countries don’t seem to want them, so why should America just allow them to waltz in unchecked?

Americans need to contact their representatives in Congress and voice their concern over this president thumbing his nose at the concerns of citizens and pressing on with his agenda to do what he wants, when he wants and how he wants. If citizens don’t start demanding action from their elected representative, 2016 could be very dangerous for America.

Ed Bjork

Fountain Valley

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I’m in total agreement with Mark Landsbaum’s column relative to President Obama’s statements in recent press and global media outlets. Obama, in my view, is a child of his father and has inherited the traits and honed them to a fault. Obama’s father was a fraud, con artist, thief and polygamist, among other things. Read the son’s book. He envisions a new immigration policy without proper vetting from the Middle East. My grandmother came through Ellis Island.

American politics in this age of great global challenges need someone to step up and say to the world, “Enough.” It may well take a multitude of international powers, meaning multinational forces, to eradicate the terrorist element. Education and tolerance are the answer. Perhaps Jesus and Muhammad could get together.

William Lewis

Irvine

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Re: “Americans not who Obama wants us to be” [Opinion, Jan. 2]: “Why We Fight” was a World War II propaganda film series to persuade Americans to fight the Axis powers.

Today, does anyone know “why we fight” in the Middle East?

Saudi Arabia, birthplace of 15 of the 19 al-Qaida terrorists responsible for 9/11, just created an anti-terrorist organization composed of 34 Sunni Muslim nations.

Unsurprisingly, Shia-led Muslim nations, like Iran, Iraq and Syria, were not included, continuing a Sunni-Shia feud started nearly 1,400 years ago.

Iraq is perhaps 65 percent Shia, but they are splintered into ethnic factions, and Kurds spread among Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey hope for a resurrection of Kurdistan.

In Pakistan and Afghanistan, Pashtun tribes, sources of Taliban fighters, hope for a restoration of their homeland.

I oppose putting our troops in harm’s way until President Obama explains “why we fight” terrorism.

Joe Boyett

Riverside

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Once again, Mark Landsbaum has spoken for the majority of Americans by castigating the president for wanting to allow thousands of unvetted Syrians into our country. The president claims that refusing admission is “not who we are.” There is a way this could be tested. Let the first 100 refugees occupy the president’s home for one year. If nothing else, it would show everybody “who he is.”

Jack Bowden

Buena Park

Pricing people out

Re: “New year, more money, fewer jobs” [Opinion, Dec. 31]: The headline on the editorial states a simple economic principle – raise the price of something, and demand for it will go down. Yet, raising the minimum wage continues to be popular, despite examples all around us – self-serve gas, self-checkout at markets, ATMs, online shopping, etc. There used to be people doing those jobs. Not anymore. The economics is irrefutable, and our elected officials know that.

If they were genuinely dedicated to creating more jobs, they would never enact such laws. But that’s not how they think. Whether something is good or bad for the economy or society as a whole isn’t really what drives them; what does is whether something gets them more votes. Since they have proven they don’t have a clue about how to create jobs, except in government, the next-best thing is promising more pay for the ones who already have jobs, which they’ve learned is a winner at the polls.

M.J. Knudsen

Trabuco Canyon

Self-deporting coyotes

While reading about our coyote problem here in Huntington Beach, I began to entertain the idea of our fair city hiring a coyote czar. Then, it hit me! Why not simply declare Huntington Beach a “coyote-free zone”? End of problem. Be careful not to get run over by the rush of coyotes leaving town.

Don Keeley

Huntington Beach

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